Bael the Bard was a King-Beyond-the-Wall.[1] According to legend, he was one of the greatest free folk raiders of his time, a man who outwitted the northmen and impregnated the daughter of Lord Brandon Stark. He was also a bard who wrote songs about his own life, which are still used to this day.[2]

Contents

History

Legend

According to free folk legend, Lord Brandon Stark, the liege of the north, once called Bael a coward. To take revenge of this affront and prove his courage, Bael climbed the Wall, took the kingsroad, and entered Winterfell under the guise of a singer named Sygerrik of Skagos, which means "deceiver" in the old language of Skagos. There, he sang until midnight for the lord.[3]

Impressed by his skills as a singer, Lord Stark asked him what he wanted as a reward, and Bael only asked for the most beautiful flower blooming in Winterfell's gardens. As the blue winter roses were just blooming, Brandon Stark accepted to offer him one. The following morning, the single, virgin daughter of the lord had disappeared, and in her bed was the blue winter rose.[3]

Lord Brandon sent the members of the Night's Watch looking for them beyond the Wall, but they never found Bael or the girl. The Stark line was on the verge of extinction, when one day the girl was back in her room, holding in her hand an infant: they had actually never left Winterfell, staying hidden in the crypts. Bael's bastard with Brandon's daughter became the new Lord Stark.

When thirty years later Bael was King-Beyond-the-Wall and led the wildlings' army south, he had to fight his own son at the Frozen Ford. There, incapable of killing his own blood, he let himself be killed by Lord Stark. His son brought back Bael's head to Winterfell, and his mother who had loved the bard, seeing the trophy, killed herself from the top of a tower. The son was eventually slain by the Boltons.[3]